**** recommended
While all of Nancy’s 1960s albums will likely please her serious fans, some dates clearly stand out, and this early one with Shearing is clearly one of them.

The alternating back and forth between instrumental and vocal cuts works wonderfully, like pearls and diamonds lined up in a bracelet, and it causes one to wonder why this form of sequencing isn’t used more often. Instead of forcing the use of vocal fillers–too often an issue with albums of the 60s–this format fills the room with something worth talking about, works like a healthy conversation, and it offers space and repose, allows time for the music to sink into your soul. And with Nancy offering the vocals, the sequencing works like a tease, the instrumentals like head-spinning pauses between kisses.

Along with the two stars, vibraphonist Warren Chiasson and guitarist Dick Garcia get a little time to get their offerings into the conversations. It really doesn’t matter if you prefer Nancy’s jazz dates or her pop ones, this one will please everyone.

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When an Italian-American from Chicago sings an album full of hillbilly songs, probably the last thing you’d expect is a set of soul music, but that’s what you get.

Not only is this a soul album, it’s a good one, likely coming out of Ray Charles’ albums from a few years earlier. Like with Ray’s country albums, sometimes the arrangements are a bit much, but fortunately Yuro’s voice shines through.

If you’re looking for an intro to this talented singer, this is a good place to start.

As the shag zebra-striped outfit suggests, this album wasn’t bubblegum soul but rather a young girl singing like a woman of experience, the presentation making no apologies for the fact that this set is dripping like the dew on a waterbed. Wright handles the material with ease, contributing one cut herself and making the others her own. The backing band is in fine form, the arrangements wrapping around her vocals like a silk slip, Murcia snaking his guitar licks into the mix.

This includes all her first A and B sides, and plenty of other gems. While some cuts are simply classic, the entire set is strong. No filler this time around.

Impressions’ first album for Mayfield’s Curtom label. The title track and “They Don’t Know” foreshadow the direction Mayfield would soon take, but for the most part this continues with the sound they’d established with ABC-Paramount. The set is written by Mayfield with two cuts co-written with Donny Hathaway–another pioneer of the social-themed soul of the 70s.

Some people want to go back in time, but I say, I’m fine with right now. When else can you see the best band in the world for a dollar, and make a great movie in no time at all, produce, edit and distribute it to the whole wide world without spending a penny.